Lead Acquisition: What Is It, And How To Get Them Qualified
If you run a business, irrespective of whether it is a b2b marketing or online retailing, you know that leads are the blood and oxygen that keep it going. They are the life of any business, and just like life, your enterprise is as good as dead without the precious leads. Unlike a prospect, a lead shows real interest in the products or services you are selling. There are two types of leads-lead generation and lead acquisition.
Lead generation is all about creating your own leads to lure and attract traffic to your website or business. You do this by using different methods, some of which require lengthy processes, lots of money, intricacy, and time. The most common lead generation methods many offline and online business people use include ad campaigns, email marketing, social media platforms, PPC, and referrals, among many others.
On the other hand, Lead acquisition covers various processes that include filtering, capturing, and leading leads to your systems. Moreover, instead of generating the leads by yourself, you buy them from a third-party lead vendor, which is more economical, less complicated, and faster.
An example of a third-party lead vendor is Easypromos Engagement Solutions, which does all the heavy lifting to allow you to concentrate on other aspects of your business. Furthermore, you can improve your engagement and generate more leads with Easypromos’ solutions by blocking any other leads that do not live up to your preference or criteria.
How to Get a Lead Acquisition Qualified
After receiving data from your lead acquisition vendor, you need to complete specific tasks to have your lead qualified.
- Check that the formatting of the data on the forms match
The first thing to do is ensure that all the required fields from the lead provider match with what you provided. While at it, you should also ensure that your database’s data format matches what you receive from the vendor. You can also check with the lead vendor about receiving your data using the business’s standardized conventions or building a process that matches the existing database with the incoming data.
- Test for lead delivery
You should also test if the leads received from your vendor are legitimate by sending out emails. If you come across any email addresses with no content deliveries, remove them from your list.
- Nurture and warm the leads
Nurture and warm the leads by putting them into a CRM (Customer Relationship Platform) or a Marketing Automation System to provide them with value. If you buy leads and do not nurture or warm them by sending them content, you will have a poor relationship with them, lowering their value.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Lead Acquisition
The question of whether to outsource leads or generate them in-house is one many business owners have to ask at one time or the other. Generating leads in-house means you have more control over everything you do. Allowing a lead acquisition vendor to take over the process without any guarantee of reaping potential leads is not an easy thing. However, if you want to keep your lead influx consistent, outsourcing becomes necessary.
The lead acquisition also becomes necessary when you are a start-up and do not have enough resources to generate an in-house lead generation team. Whatever situation leads you to outsource, you have to bear in mind that they are not miracle workers. They will require your help and attention to provide a successful lead acquisition process. Below are the other advantages and disadvantages of lead acquisition.
Advantages
It saves your company time and money
When you hire a lead acquisition team to do all the work, you save money and time on in-house training. The lead acquisition vendor does all the tedious job of advertising and researching for ways to get leads.
Reaches a larger audience
A lead acquisition vendor has professionals with enough experience on all lead generation facets and all the practices and tricks needed to attract customers. A vendor will provide you with a larger pool of contacts that would be hard to get directions. Lead acquisition is especially great for small businesses that need to reach a wider audience but do not have the organic means at their disposal to achieve the same results directly.
More accurate lead targeting
Lead acquisition vendors use a lead-scoring method to figure out the likelihood of each lead conversion. Knowing the probability of how each lead is to convert provides the in-house team with the advantage of working out the best approach methods before making their first contact with the lead. Moreover, this kind of personalization enables more focused and accurate targeting.
Disadvantages
You are not a top priority
Even with all the benefits and conveniences that you get from a lead acquisition vendor, you must remember that you are dealing with an external team that probably has a long list of other clients. They will try to provide you with the best services because that is what you are paying them to do, but you do not own them, and they have many other accounts that need their full attention. Before committing to a lead acquisition vendor, you should ensure that they commit to working alongside you fully, irrespective of the number of clients they serve.
Cooler leads
Leads not sourced by your in-house team will be harder to familiarize with. It would help if you started by introducing your brand to the newly sourced leads hoping that they will like what you offer or be willing to schedule at least a call with you. You also have to develop exciting stuff that will get them interested in your brand, which might prove hard for some companies.
Wrapping It Up
If you are looking for the best way to make your marketing efforts hit an all-time high and keep up with the competition, you should explore the opportunities that come with the lead acquisition.
Choose a reputable platform that will strengthen your marketing strategies and opportunities both online and offline. Easypromos Engagement Solutions has all the opportunities that all business owners, irrespective of their status, need.